please help me cut this down a bit =)

[Guest GoyaHoya69]

Hi all. Please help me cut this down a little bit. I've been stuck all weekend. Thanks!

 

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I roll over to my left side to address the blaring beep sound, and then recall that I strategically placed the alarm clock just out of arm’s reach in order to force myself out of bed to turn it off. The clock insists that I slept for 5 hours, and I acquiesce. I take a sip of water, rub my eyes with my palms, do a few jumping jacks, or try anything else to take my mind off of my tiredness. After bidding my bed adieu, I get in line for the bathroom. To pass the time, I use both hands to try to remember how many people in this house share 2 bathrooms – there is myself, my mother, 2 uncles, 2 family friends, my cousin, her husband, and their 2 young children. Just before I fall asleep leaning against the wall, it is finally my turn to shower and get ready for another day filled with lectures, labs, independent study, and just enough optimism. This has been my morning ritual for the last year.

 

I am hoping to enroll in a physician assistant (PA) program in 2017, but PA school really started for me in May 2015. This is when I left my job, my friends, and the entire life I had built in Washington, DC for the previous 6 years. My new home? None other than the oft-maligned New Jersey. I graduated from Georgetown University with a B.A. in psychology and had never taken college-level science classes. Yet, here I was in NJ staring at the daunting task of completing 40+ science credits in 12 months. Additionally, these past 12 months were imbued with a sense of uncertainty from friends who questioned why I would choose a profession that required me to move 220 miles away to take more college classes. While I usually mentioned benefits of the PA profession such as relatively short duration of PA programs, flexibility in specialty, and decent income, the true inspiration for my desire to become a PA stems from the negative and positive experiences I have had in healthcare.

 

My parents illegally emigrated from Peru to the U.S. in 1985, a time when this practice was both common and dangerous. Their journey from Peru to Mexico to Arizona to, eventually, New Jersey would require an extra 5000 characters, but suffice it to say that they left a country in turmoil in hopes of starting a family in the great USA. My father was often in and out of work, which resulted in extended periods of time in which I had no health insurance. When I did have insurance, I vividly remember the dilapidated neighborhoods and overflowing waiting rooms associated with the doctors on my health plan. The majority of the time, these doctors spent much less than 10 minutes with me, were visually annoyed by questions from myself and my mother, and had therefore thwarted any chance for a provider-patient relationship. As I recall doctor appointments as a child, I cannot help but appreciate the impact that PAs have in the healthcare field. With the increase in PAs today, more patients can be seen and/or more time can be spent with patients. I am a firm believer of the power of the rapport built between a healthcare provider and their patient and, with this in mind, I believe that PAs help everyone in a clinic be better providers. I did not know what a competent, attentive physician was until my freshman year in college, where I had university-issued insurance. I would like to become a PA that helps patient healthcare experiences progress to a point where situations like these do not happen.

 

Thankfully, my PA aspirations are not all derived from negative experiences. I spent almost 2 years working as a clinical research assistant in a pediatric concussion clinic. Much of my time was spent administering baseline tests and education sessions for children at risk of suffering a concussion. Though most days a parent and child would arrive at an appointment at ease, there were a few times when they both arrived overtly distressed. In one instance, a mother explained to me that her son had a concussion 6 months earlier and though he physically recovered and wanted to play sports again, both he and she were reluctant to re-integrate him into sports due to fear of injury. Their ambivalence was palpable. I explained to her that the appointment entailed elements specifically for a child like her own who may have a concussion in the future, and also elaborated on the services that our clinic provided in case such an injury occurred again. I took her son to a testing room and gave him a short lecture on what a concussion is, its symptoms, what to do if you have one, and local laws regarding athletic participation after suffering a concussion. Above all else I emphasized that someone who gets a concussion will get better and that he is living proof of that. When I brought him back to his mother, she noticed that he was in higher spirits than when they first arrived, which elicited a certain facial expression from her. I call this expression the “Look,” the manifestation of a parent’s sense of relief that their child is in good care and the situation is not as dire as initially perceived. I was only in a handful of situations serious enough to warrant the Look from a parent, but each time I could not help but be overcome with excitement about my future as a PA and the potential with which this profession comes.

 

PA school started for me in May 2015 and continues as I enter this one-year gap before I hopefully enroll into a PA program. For this year-long gap, I have already increased my volunteer and shadowing hours at a local hospital; signed up to volunteer at a local hospice facility; sought out medical learning materials recommended by current and past PA students in order to keep my mind sharp during this academic hiatus; started a workout regimen so that future patients know I practice what I preach in terms of living a healthy lifestyle; and made plans to fine-tune my Spanish so that I can be a resource to future patients of many backgrounds. Upon graduation from a PA program, I will still consider myself in PA school because there will always be more to learn and master. I have fully immersed myself into this vocational path, am loving every minute of it, and am eager to see what my future holds as a PA.